Have you ever braved the steep slopes of the Rockies? Seen the view from the biggest suspension bridge in Canada? Spent a week with 23 other grade nines? I have. And let me tell you, it was something special. 

The goal of our Alberta trip was to find an answer to the driving question, “how has the geography of the west shaped who we are?” Our big project for this trip was all about how we’ve changed the geography of the west, but also how it’s changed us. 

We started off our project by creating a thesis. Mine was “the Rockies are defined by its beautiful sights, and is a common tourist attraction because of its uniqueness.” I also wanted to add that after spending time in Alberta and observing the state of tourism, I realized that tourism has really changed over time, which relates directly to the driving question. The geography of the west has forever changed tourism, and tourism has forever changed the west. 

We went to many different significant places on our trip, but I’m  going to focus on the three that I think relate the best to this project. The rest of the places we went have dedicated sections in my book, which is linked below. This was the final product for both humanities and maker, and was a ton of fun to create!

Our project was all about geography, so what better to focus on than the Canadian Pacific Railway! Our trip was largely based around the construction of the railway, and how it affected the geography of the Rockies, as well as all of the west. We visited craigaliche, which is where the last spike was driven, as well as the Canadian pacific railway museum, where we learned all about how the railway made the Rockies a huge tourist attraction. This really helped me explain my thesis better. We learned so much about how terribly the workers were treated, and how much it affected the people who already lived on the land. 

Another staple of the Rocky Mountains is the Lake Louise. People come from all over the world to see the famous lake, and it even has its own chateau for people to stay at while they take in the view. This was a very important stop in our trip, as the geography of the surrounding area was literally changed so that humans could have a more pleasant experience. People used to just come to see the lake, but after the CPR was put in, it became a whole destination. 

The last important feature of the Rocky Mountains is, of course, the mountains! We hiked a ton of mountains throughout our trip, but the most notable is likely sulphur mountain. This mountain has a three hundred and sixty degree view of the other mountains, and is absolutely breathtaking. Hiking to the top was a struggle, but it was fun to do with my friends.

Another beautiful view was Parker ridge, which had an amazing view of the Columbia Ice-field, and we even got to see some mountain goats! We created the trail up Parker ridge just so we could see the amazing view, which is an amazing example of how we change the geography of the areas around us to better suit us, which will forever change it for the next generation. 

This whole project was a unique opportunity to not only visit the Rockies, but reflect on how we have affected the geography of the land around us, and how it continues to affect us. What we do now will affect all of the generations to come, which is something that we sometimes forget. If someone was to do this project one hundred years in the future, how would our actions affect them? 

This trip taught me a lot, but it was also a lot of fun! It’s really a unique experience to get to get to go on a big trip with a ton of my friends! Sometimes, it could be a lot, but getting through the tough times made the good times more rewarding! Thank you so much for reading!

Here is a link to my book, in which you can learn all about the places we went on our trip!

This is a button that goes to my maker post, in which I talk all about the videos that we made on our trip!

If you want to view my video directly, see these links!

Silent video: https://youtu.be/jxNiZnmEiNg?feature=shared

Investigative video: https://youtu.be/-cXbTDuLzjc?feature=shared

Tiktok video: https://youtube.com/shorts/__wY5rE6hoM?feature=shared

What inspires me video: https://youtu.be/HOGDcCKPQek?feature=shared

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest project, which was called “Using The Moving Image To Tell A Story,” we examined how we can use the moving image to tell a story. This project was connected to our Rocky Mountain field study, and the assignment for this project was multiple videos that related not just to our driving question in maker, but also our humanities project. Our project in humanities was about how the geography of the west has shaped us, and in it we learned quite a bit about the geography the Rockies. 

The first video that we created was the investigative video. This was easily the one that was most related to the driving question, as our task was to find people to interview, and ask them questions directly related to our thesis. My thesis was “the Rockies is defined by it’s beautiful sights, and is a common tourist attraction because of it’s uniqueness.” It was intended to centre around tourism, and how it”s changed over time. In my book, you can see me asking questions about where people are from, which is me trying to understand what the state of tourism in the west looks like right now. I learned a lot from this video when it came to confidence in taking to strangers, as well as explaining what I’d learned from a project. This was definitely the most difficult video to create, because not everyone was willing to cooperate, but I learned that the public is a lot nicer than they’re given credit for. 

The second video that we worked on was the silent video. This was incredibly fun, but it wasn’t super easy. We had limited time to write the script for our video, and we had multiple disagreements on what to include. However, I learned a lot about group work and cooperation through this project, and we ended up with a funny story about betrayal and a pencil. I would love to do something like this again!

The third video that we made was the TikTok video. This was meant to be a fun break from the workload that we received on the trip, and it was definitely the most fun to edit! I learned a lot about video editing from this video, as well as that we can always put our own spin on PLP projects! Me and Kennedy decided to do a “PLP instagram versus reality” video, in which we showed what the trip looked like on instagram, versus the chaos that was reality. 

Our final video we actually started after we got back from the trip, which gave us the most time to film and edit it. This was the “at home video challenge,” and it was all about what inspires us! My video was largely about how life isn’t always perfect, but it’s the good things that keep us going! I talked a lot about how sports always keeps me motivated, and my family and school always inspire me to be a better person. This video took a long time to edit, because I wanted it to really reflect who I am. I learned a lot about myself through this video, as well as realizing who I want to become. I feel like this was a perfect way to wrap up our project!

Thank you so much for reading! Here is a link to my book, which has all of my videos in it, as well as further explanations of the videos!

If you want to view my video directly, see these links!

Silent video: https://youtu.be/jxNiZnmEiNg?feature=shared

Investigative video: https://youtu.be/-cXbTDuLzjc?feature=shared

Tiktok video: https://youtube.com/shorts/__wY5rE6hoM?feature=shared

What inspires me video: https://youtu.be/HOGDcCKPQek?feature=shared

Here is a link to my Rocky Mountain High post, which goes more in depth about the Alberta trip, as well as the rest of my book. Have a great day!

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest project, we looked at the way that media affects our lives and worldviews, daily. For the sake of simplicity, I have decided to divide this blog post into two parts. The first part will be about the project itself, and the second part will be about the spring exhibition. 

Our first keystone on this project was the media survey, and was an assignment that we filled out with the help of a family member. The survey was designed to make us think about how we interpreted media, and how it affects us without even realizing it. I think that this was a really good way to start off the project, as it was a good thinking exercise. I thought that it was an insightful transition into our next keystone. 

The second keystone was called the persuasion chart, and was a chart that we had to fill out in which we took multiple different types of advertisements and decided what their target audience was, what appeals were used in the creation of the ads, and whether they used pathos, ethos, or logos to interest the viewer.  

The final keystone was probably the biggest project of the year, as it involved not just the project itself, but also the Oregon Coast Field Study, and the spring exhibition. For your sake, I’m going to start off with the project, and then talk about the other two related events. To read my reflection on the field study, click here.

Our third keystone was centred around advertising, and our final task was to create advertisements for businesses on the Oregon Coast. We started off by doing some research on our businesses, and finding their websites. Then we started brainstorming questions that we wanted to ask our businesses.  

When we got the the museum, however, the museum staff decided not to interview us because they would rather have gone on their lunch break than take five minutes out of their day to interview us. This meant that we had to do extra research to make up for this, which made it more difficult for us to create our ads. However, we persevered, and I have to say, I was pretty proud of our finished products!

We all were rushing to finish our ads before the exhibition, but we were all able to do it in time! When we were planning for the exhibition, we had to establish roles that we would take. I was given the role of DRI, which stands for “directly responsible individual” and is the person who is responsible for most of the organization, and if something goes wrong. It was incredibly stressful for me, but I pulled through, and we ended up with a pretty good presentation at the exhibition! 

The exhibition itself was kind of crazy, as it was a struggle to find the right tables and all of the resources that were around the school that we had to use. In the end, we managed to get everything together, and set up for exhibition in time! This is us at the exhibition! I thought that I should also add that we got chipotle burritos as dinner before the exhibition, which put everyone in a good mood to present our projects to the community! Thank you for reading!

Here is a slideshow of my ad drafts!

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am an expert of my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and offering feedback I can use to improve as a learner. 

Over the past year, I’ve grown a lot as a PLP learner, but also as a person. This is a program that lets us take responsibility of our own learning, and really lets us thrive. I’ve learned a lot about myself and others, as well as gained a bunch of new skills that I can apply not just to school, but to the rest of my life. In this presentation, I will show what exactly I’ve been learning in PLP, and that I’m ready for grade nine. Okay, let’s get into it. 

When I first started out the year, I didn’t have a lot of expectations for myself. We started off the year by making learning plans, which made us think about what we planned to achieve in PLP over the year. When I made the plan, I hadn’t really thought about how much work I wanted to put in to my projects.

This is the proficiency scale, and it’s how we’re graded in PLP. In humanities, I had originally put “effective” as the proficiency I expected myself to achieve. I was advised to change this to sophisticated, which has suited me much better. Since then, I’ve achieved this proficiency in all of my PLP classes. This has taught me that I should always try my hardest, and that even if I don’t get extending, I will still have done my best, and I can say that I’m proud of my work.

I wanted to start with the projects that I’ve FAILed at this past year, because in PLP, we believe that to FAILing, or first attempt in learning, is how we grow as learners. This is especially relevant in our project Blue-Eyed Brutes in Horned Helmets, in which we learned about the Vikings, and why they did what they did. We also learned about how they were so successful in their raids. The first keystone was a Viking character card, in which we made we created a fictional Viking, and had to make it as accurate as we could. I think that I could’ve put a lot more effort into this keystone, because I wasn’t very proud of my final product. 

I don’t believe that the reason that my final product was rather bland had less to do with effort and more to do with me not knowing which direction to take the project to make it better. This realization was one of the first big FAIL moments for me this year. Not because the final product was something terrible, but because I realized that I could have made it so much better. This is what I would describe as my biggest FAIL this year.

The project that I found the most interesting this year would have been Mind Over Matter, which was a science project in which we examined the structure of atoms and theories like the kinetic molecular theory. The first keystone was kind of a test of our knowledge of determining density, volume, and mass, so there isn’t much to reflect on. The second and third keystones are a different matter. 

The second keystone was based around diffusion, which is a scientific process that we demonstrated by using gummy bears to create our own experiment to show how different variables affect the rate of diffusion. I loved this project, and I think it’s been my favourite so far, because of the amount of freedom we were given in our experiments. We were really given the opportunity to take this project in whatever direction we wanted. Here’s the keynote that I made to show the results of my experiment. 

The third keystone was definitely my favourite, as we got to use the coding software Scratch to create fun video games. They still had to somehow relate to the structure of an atom or the subatomic particles we had been learning about. My game definitely had the most revisions of any project I’d done this year, as I am not exactly the best coder out there. However, after numerous revisions and a lot of improvising, I finally came out with a product that I was proud of. 

This is the project that I wanted to talk about then most because of how much I learned throughout it. When I say “learned,” I don’t just mean about science. I also mean what I’ve learned about PLP, revising drafts, coding, and surprisingly, public speaking. I’ve struggled a lot with many of these things before, so this project was really important in my growth this year.   I feel like this project has really given me some useful tools and experiences that I can applications in the real world, as well as for the rest of PLP. 

I’d like my last project that I present to you today to really bring the presentation to an end that makes sense, and to end on a positive note. So I’ve decided to talk about the Oregon trip. 

In our latest project, and the one that we worked on for the exhibition, we looked at media, and how it affects our daily lives. The first two keystones aren’t as relevant, and I didn’t learn a lot from either of them. However, the final keystone was quite the endeavour. 

The project that was attached to the Oregon Coast Field Study was called “The Medium Is The Message,” and was centred around the idea that media affects our daily lives in almost infinite ways, without us even realizing it. 

Our assignment was to create ads for businesses that were located in Oregon, and my group was given the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which is a museum that was located on the Columbia River, and was dedicated to it’s history. It’s famous because it focuses on the shipwrecks that line the river, as well as the sand bar that runs under the river, and makes it difficult for ships to cross. 

All of the other groups got to interview their businesses and
ask them questions like what their target audience were, what they were most proud of about their business, as well as other questions that only the business could answer. Sadly, the woman who we had planned to interview decided that she would rather go on lunch break than to take five minutes out of her day to benefit our education. What a kind person. 

To sum it up, we didn’t really know a lot about our business, so we had to improvise A
LOT. Still, when the exhibition came, we did a decent job of showing off our work. We went through a lot of revisions on our advertisements, but because this was the last humanities project of the year, we had learned a lot about working around problems, so it all worked out in the end. 

This year has been a crazy one for me, and I think that I’ve gained the experience to to be able to advance to grade nine. I’ve been through a lot of revisions, a lot of projects, and been under a lot of stress. Still, I’ve managed to come out on top of all of my work, and I think that I’m ready for grade nine. Thank you so much for listening to my presentation (I know it’s been a lot), and I hope you’ve learned about my growth as a learner this year!

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest project, we have been focusing on advertising and targeting goods or services at certain groups of people. Our driving question for this project was “How do we make our medium, a message,” and was focused around what media is, how we use it to send out a message to the public, and how it affects our daily lives.

Because of the type of project we were doing, we decided to use this project as an opportunity to go on a field study! On this trip, we went to the Oregon Coast, and went as far as New Port, Oregon! We got to do all sorts of crazy things, but they still had to be related to the project. 

We were all assigned businesses that we had to design an ad for. My group had the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which was a museum located by the Columbia river that has a numerous amount of exhibits and interactive displays, which make it unique. 

We also stopped at a number of amazing restaurants, many of which were only in the US. My favourites would have been the buffets we went to, because we could eat as much as we wanted! The best meal that we had by far would have been Kam Meng, an amazing Chinese restaurant. 

For our final stop, we went to Wolf Haven, an organization who takes in and rehabilitates wolves that wouldn’t have been able to survive on their own. We learned a lot about wolves and their habits, but also a great deal about the land and why they chose to build Wolf Haven in that exact spot.

I learned a lot about our business before we went on the trip, to make sure that I was prepared to interview the people who ran the museum. Sadly, they were too busy to answer our questions, so we had to improvise heavily with our ads. 

The trip wasn’t completely about ads! We got to do a number of cool things while on the trip, including zip lining, laser tag, and go-carting! It was an amazing experience, and I got to go with my friends.

Surviving with people from school for a whole week can be challenging, but it was worth it for some of the moments and the experiences we had. I mean, those kind of things are cool, but they’re just so much better to share with friends!

The trip itself had some up and downs. The bus broke down while we were close to our campsite, and we had to wait in the bus for over an hour. But because of that, we got to ride in a limo! We also stayed in yurts for most of the trip, which was cramped, but fun!

This is the book that I created that documented the trip! Enjoy!

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest humanities project, we looked at the consequences of European colonization. This project has been focused on shifting our perspective to the other side of colonization, not just how the Europeans were affected by colonization. We have done a number of different activities, all to answer the driving question, and to see colonization from a different perspective. In our first keystone, we took a piece of art that was created by the artist C.W Jeffreys and created a chart to analyze the deeper meanings in the piece, and to take a closer look at the description of the painting to answer the questions Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

In our second keystone, we took a painting or drawing created by the same artist and recreated it to represent a different worldview. The painting that I chose is titled “Madeleine De
Vercheres Defends Her Father’s Fort,” and is a depiction of a standoff between a small group of European settlers and the natives. I changed the painting to show the Native perspective of the event. I altered the position of Madeleine so that it looked like she was behind the gate. I made these changes because I don’t think that the original painting showed the native perspective of the situation. It seemed to show the settlers as victims to the natives, which doesn’t connect to the driving question of “What Did European Settlement Mean For All Involved?”

In our final keystone, we took the original painting and the reinterpreted image and wrote a script to an Augmented Reality video. In our video, we had to explain why we made the changes to the image that we had made and how it related to the project. My AR video was centred around the perspective of the natives, and why they had chosen to attack the settlers. You can find out all about it in my AR video! Here is a link to the finished version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GKWbmMO38c6BkmLQjgLKyinaYlixYQOp/view

To reflect on the project, I think that I did a rather good job of answering the driving question in my project, and I also just had a lot of fun with the project overall! I think that I learned a lot about European exploration, and how the natives saw the situation. Thanks for reading!

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest science project, called Mind over Matter, we looked at the structure of an atom and theories like the kinetic molecular theory. In our first project, we learned about the correspondences between mass, density, and volume. Our final project for the keystone was to pick an object in the science room, and find the mass, density, and volume of the object. I believe that I chose a small metal block that was sitting on the table, and it was pretty east to find each measurement. 

In our second keystone, we looked at diffusion, and did experiments with gummy bears to learn how to create our own experiments and to do them ourselves. This was a really fun project even though we didn’t get to eat the gummy bears, it was very interesting. My experiment was to find out whether a gummy bear would diffuse faster in normal water or in sugar water. Here is my slideshow that I made to see the results!

In our final keystone, we examined the structure of subatomic particles and atoms, and got to make video games using the coding software Scratch. My game was a maze game where you were an atom and you had to navigate through a maze without touching the sides. It didn’t have much to do with the project, but it was really fun to play! Making it was incredibly difficult, but I definitely learned a lot about using scratch! This was probably my favourite project of the three, because I loved the process of making the game, even if it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever made. Here is my game!

Because you can’t see the instructions for the game here, you have to use the arrow keys to navigate through the maze without touching the sides. There are three levels. Enjoy!

I’ve definitely learned a lot through this project, both creating things online and doing experiments in a lab. This has been one of my favourite overall projects so far, and I’m excited to see what we will do next in science!

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest project, we got to take a deep dive into the world of microorganisms. We learned about many of the different cells that are in our bodies, the body’s ways to ward off invaders, and the importance of vaccines.

In our first keystone, we went around the school and took a sample of a surface that we believed would have a lot of bacteria. We then placed it in a Petri dish to grow. The point of the experiment was to see just how dirty the school really is, and how quickly bacteria grows.

In the second portion of the project, we looked at the different cells that inhabit our body and keep us safe. We got to make little character cards of all of the cells we learned about, and give them personalities. This one was my favourite of the keystones, as they were easy to make our own. We learned a lot about the innate immune system through this project, in a way that was really interesting.

In the third keystone, we examined the different types of vaccines and how they are made. We got to look at the different types of vaccines, and what exactly they do to help boost your immune system. We made posters with some of the myths that are common when we talk about vaccines. Some of these myths are that vaccines have trackers in them so that the government can keep tabs on you, that vaccines can change your DNA, or that vaccines such as the one for Covid-19 was too rushed so it’s totally ineffective. We looked at these myths and showed that these are just that: myths.

To reflect on the project as a whole, I would say that it was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot of amazing things about the human body. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! In our latest project, we looked at the journeys of some early explorers, and wrote a story based on their expeditions. I picked Jacques Cartier, a French explorer who was trying to find a new route to Asia due to an order by his king. I really enjoyed this project because I got to be creative with the writing aspect of it. We also got to create images to integrate into our story, and create a book using the app Book Creator.

The first keystone was different from the second and third, however, in which we created a Viking character card that showed an accurate description of a Viking and showed the differences between the way that the Vikings are portrayed through the media and the way that they actually lived. This project was probably my favourite of the three, as I got to design the Viking and give him a personality. I think that I did a fairly good job of portraying the way that Vikings really lived, as apposed to the myths that have become norms for our modern day society.

Reflecting on the project, I probably could’ve added more detail to my images and worked harder on my graphic design, but in the end I think that it turned out all right.

Here is my book! 

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am an expert of my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and offering feedback I can use to improve as a learner. 

Over the past few months, I’ve grown a lot as a PLP learner, and also a person. PLP is a program that allows us to take responsibility for our own learning, while also creating work that we can be proud of. I’ve gained a lot of new skills from the projects that we have done, and a lot of valuable experiences. This is not to say that I haven’t made any mistakes, of course, seeing as revision is part of the learning process. 

In our first project, we looked at the book The Outsiders, and examined worldview as an idea. While working on this project, we were advised to think about how the things that we’ve seen and experienced affect our own personality and worldview. We learned to see the world through the perspectives of the main characters, which allowed us to take a closer look at our own worldview, and the worldview of those around us. After we had finished reading the book, we were assigned the task of creating movie posters for The Outsiders, which allowed us to recreate our favourite scene from the book. This not only let us to get creative with it, but it also meant that we got to think like the characters, and take on a new worldview, which was basically the main goal of the entire project. I believe that I did a rather good job of examining different worldviews, but if I had to go back and do a better job, I would have added more detail to the littler things, and payed closer attention to the story. 

In Maker, we began work on our big life journal, which was a learning resource that was created for the purpose of letting us express our hopes and dreams for the future, as well as the progress we plan to make towards them, and what we are doing now. This project gave us the chance to create a plan for our future, but also explore things that we never would have thought about normally. I think that I learned a lot about PLP and about myself through this project, which was a huge goal for me in school. 

Another project that we’ve done ( and possibly my favourite) has to be the project that we did on the Crusades in humanities. In this project we spent a lot of time learning about the history of religions, why sparks flew between them, and how the crusades played out. We got to make slideshows about the crusades which allowed us to add animations and personalize them, which might’ve been my favourite part of the whole project. This was very important to my learning experience because it let me get creative, while still sticking the the guidelines and making a historically accurate resource. 

When we’re in PLP, I feel like I can get things done easier than I can in normal classes. This form of learning is better suited to my needs, and which is why I have been able to make so much progress as a learner. Every project that we have done has brought me a little bit closer to becoming a sophisticated learner.

I know that I’ve been talking a bit formally about my learning so far, so I apologize about that. This has been a lot of fun for me, which is something that I think is an important part of the learning experience. Through the courses that I have taken this semester, I have been able to enjoy school more than I would have through normal classes, because of the performance based learning. 

When I first started with PLP, I was still a little bit confused about how the program worked. I was very behind and confused, and I wasn’t getting the best marks. But after a little while, I started to understand a little more about the programs, and I started to get better grades. I was able to go from suns to rainbows because I started to understand the projects that we were doing. I grew a lot more because I had a slow start than if I had understood immediately. 

Despite having originally the chosen accomplished proficiency for humanities, I soon understood that I could go beyond and aim for extending instead. I had originally thought that I would only be able to reach accomplished, but it seems that I was wrong to assume that. I instead revised my learning plan to show accomplished in all of my PLP classes.

Now that we re halfway through grade eight, I think that I have fallen into the rhythm of PLP. I am more used to the layout of the projects and how we work in groups, as well as how to ask for help when I need it. Even though I am not always satisfied with my work, I always put lots of effort in, and I think that’s what counts. 

If there is one thing that I would like to accomplish in the rest of the school year, that would be to get extending marks inn all of my PLP classes. This may seem ambitious, but if I strive for all extending, then I will have to work hard to achieve that, which is something that really matters to me. 

A FAIL that I had this year would have been our triptychs. I am not the best at using photoshop, so my first drafts were horrendous. However, after many many tries, I was able to create decent work.  Next time, instead of just trying to wing it, I will ask for help or watch a tutorial instead.

Right now, we are looking at TikToks that show how difficult life is for a teacher, but we have to spin them to show what a pain teachers can be. I am a little bit worried about this one, because I’m not completely sure if they are ready for what I have, but I still think that it’ll be an amazing learning opportunity! To summarize everything that I have said, I have grown a lot from when I first started PLP to where I am right now, and it’s all thanks to PLP. Thank you for listening!